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Jeter, Still Sore, Appears Headed for Disabled List Jeter, Still Sore, Appears Headed for the D.L.
(about 2 hours later)
TAMPA, Fla. — Derek Jeter reported more soreness in his surgically repaired left ankle Sunday, prompting General Manager Brian Cashman to say that Jeter will almost certainly start the season on the 15-day disabled list. TAMPA, Fla. — Brian Cashman explained that additional soreness in Derek Jeter’s surgically repaired ankle would most likely force Jeter onto the disabled list, which would ensure that he would miss opening day. Moments later, Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, was asked if everything else was all right.
“For me, I’m already there,” Cashman said of the decision. With his team suffering through a staggering array of injuries — a list so long that it includes Cashman himself — there was no happy answer.
By going on the D.L., Jeter would not be eligible to return until at least April 6, meaning he will miss opening day on April 1. But based on recent events, even April 6 would seem a very optimistic target date. “That’s a loaded question,” Cashman said Sunday while perched on a scooter with his own broken leg. “I don’t think anyone is all right. We all have whatever we have. But we’re Yankees; we’re supposed to get through them.”
“The season is coming quicker than his leg is ready, in my opinion,” Cashman said. Cashman insists that Jeter, too, will eventually overcome his injury. But Jeter’s most recent setback has prompted concern that his issues may linger longer than anyone anticipated, perhaps even well into the season.
Jeter would join his fellow injured teammates Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez on the sidelines for opening day. If he is placed on the D.L., the earliest Jeter can return is April 6, but even that may be an optimistic bet.
Until this setback, Jeter had been experiencing a pain-free recovery from an operation Oct. 20 to repair a broken ankle. That changed Tuesday, when soreness forced him to miss a game. He had more tests done on the ankle, revealing inflammation but no new injury, the Yankees said, adding that the bone was fully healed. “He’s just not ready yet,” Cashman said. “We’re not dealing with any new injury or anything of that nature. It’s just general soreness. He plays a massively demanding position. Shortstop is not something at the Major League Baseball level that people can easily handle. He’s coming off a broken ankle from October.”
Jeter had a cortisone shot and felt better within days. On Saturday, he took ground balls and then had four at-bats in a minor league game and ran to first base at less than full speed. But even that light workout was too much. Cashman said he had already decided that he would place Jeter on the 15-day D.L. to open the season, meaning that Jeter would join Alex Rodriguez (hip surgery), Curtis Granderson (broken arm) and Mark Teixeira (strained wrist tendon) as absentees on April 1, opening day.
Cashman said Jeter came in Sunday and said the soreness had moved to a different part of the ankle, farther back. Cashman said the recent soreness may have been from overcompensating for the original soreness, but he added that the doctors told him none of this was totally unexpected. All of them will probably remain in Tampa to complete their recoveries, but not Cashman. He is expected to be present for the opening day festivities, either on crutches or with the help of his scooter, which he inherited from Jeter.
Jeter will take at least two days off and will be re-evaluated Tuesday. He left the stadium before speaking to the news media. “My rehab’s going great,” he said.
When he was first scratched from a game last week, he maintained that his goal was still to be ready for opening day. But by Saturday, Jeter had backed off that declaration. Then on Sunday Cashman said he had mostly come to accept that the disabled list was the best option for Jeter. Jeter’s had been going well, too, until last week. He was injured in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 13 and had an operation a week later in which he had a metal plate and four screws inserted into the ankle.
“I can read his face,” Cashman said, “and his face today tells me the reality is starting to sink in that the D.L. situation might be necessary.” The soreness began Tuesday, and he was scratched from that day’s game. He was given a cortisone shot and said that the ankle felt better almost immediately.
Jeter took ground balls and then had four at-bats in a minor league game Saturday, but he did not run full speed to first base on his four groundouts. Even that light workout was too much.
He arrived at the stadium Sunday morning and told the trainers that the soreness had moved to a different part of the ankle, farther back. Cashman said the additional soreness might be a result of overcompensating for the original soreness, but Cashman added that the doctors said none of this was particularly unexpected.
Jeter left the stadium without speaking to the news media, but Cashman said Jeter would take at least two days off and would be re-evaluated Tuesday. Cashman also said that although Jeter resisted going on the D.L. when the soreness first cropped up, he had come around after the most recent setback.
“I know Derek extremely well,” Cashman said. “Obviously, I’ve been with him for a long, long time, and I can read his face. His face today tells me the reality of the circumstances are starting to sink in, that the disabled list situation might be necessary.”
Cashman said that in Jeter’s absence, the team would go with Eduardo Nunez at shortstop. Although he has had some success at the plate, Nunez has a history of fielding miscues that has made fans wary of him as a long-term solution at shortstop.
The Yankees have moved the 25-year-old Nunez to several other positions in the past, but they left him at shortstop during spring training as insurance in case Jeter had to miss time.
Nunez had two hits in Sunday’s 7-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, including a run-scoring triple, and he made a fine spinning throw on a ball up the middle. Manager Joe Girardi said that it was a play that Nunez had worked hard on at camp, and that he was happy with the way Nunez had progressed defensively. A year ago, that throw might have sailed into the stands.
“It shows the type of progress he’s made,” Girardi said.
Still, Nunez is not Jeter. With all the injuries, the Yankees’ opening day infield will have only one player from last year’s lineup, second baseman Robinson Cano. Either Francisco Cervelli or Chris Stewart will replace catcher Russell Martin, who signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent. Kevin Youkilis is expected to be the third baseman, and the leading in-house candidate at first base is Juan Rivera.
In the outfield, the Yankees have still not decided on a full-time replacement for Granderson, who hit 43 home runs last year but is expected to miss the first month of the season. One candidate is the recently signed Brennan Boesch. But Boesch sustained a strained rib-cage muscle Friday and has not played since, even though he says he feels fine.
“He thinks we’re overly cautious,” Cashman said.
After everything that has happened since Game 1 of the A.L.C.S. last year, the Yankees know it would be foolish to be anything else.